 Recommended books
These are all well-written, thought-provoking books. They are not necessarily philosophy books, but they all share a practical philosophy and seek to shed light on the question that, to us, is the most revealing of all: Why do we do the things that we do?
|
|
|
| The Art of Travel |
The Consolations of Philosophy |
How Proust Can Change Your Life |
|
|
|
| Status Anxiety |
Bill Bryson's brilliant and amazingly readable, A Short History of Nearly Everything |
Meditations on the Soul, collected letters of Renaissance philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) who wrote such truisms as 'Nothing is more full of grace in the human condition than the presence of a most excellent friend.' |
|
|
|
| This book is a great example of clear, concise, and compelling writing. Al Gore knows his topic and has done us all a huge favour by devoting a good proportion of his life to bringing this issue to the attention of the masses. |
Published in 2004, but Carl Honoré's precis of the Slow movement still provides much food for thought. It's a long and light meal, but satisfying and stimulating. |
Ervin Laszlo is a pioneer of systems thinking, which I believe should be a core subject, like mathematics. This insightful book was first published in the early 1970s and, along with Meadows et al's Limits to Growth, foretold many of the issues that our humanity's prosperity would create. Laszlo has devoted his life to both better understanding humanity and trying to educate and influence decision makers that we need to change course. |
|
|
|
| Freakonomics is a great book to remind you that the way we think affects all manner of assumptions and choices, and don't the marketers and politicians of the world know it. Critical thinking is a free and universally accessible antidote to global consumerism and manipulation on every level. |
David Mitchell's astonishing third novel is a damning yet hopeful report card on humanity, with a brutally truthful and brave recommendation at its end. Written in six inter-connected parts set from 1850 to well into the future, it is engaging, masterful writing on the most important topic of all: the purpose of human life. |
Given that homophobia and creationism are both insupportable viewpoints to my understanding of life, it is easy to assume that I would be an avid atheist, like Richard Dawkins. But I'm not (and that's a long story), and so I have always been interested in religion and the acceptance of religious faith. David Myers is skeptic and theist, scientist and philosopher, and his message (which I support) is let's not throw the baby out with the bath water. Religion is flawed, but that doesn't annul all its benefits to society. |
|
|
|
| Books like Robert Winston's Human Instinct (and Ronald Wright's book) should be compulsory texts for secondary school children. Knowing who we are and why we do the things we do is essential; learning algebra is not. These books are not long and are easy to read. |
As with Mitchell, historical philosopher Ronald Wright aims to uncover for the reader the simple purpose and patterns of human life, but he writes from a scientific perspective. His style is chatty and engaging and his message is clear: our tendancy to blindly focus on short-term progress results in us creating long-term problems. And one of those problems is our insatiable economy. He says that we need to "set economic limits in line with natural ones". To read his argument for doing so, we thoroughly recommend his illuminating and truly concise (just 135 pages plus notes) outline of the history of human development. In fact, we think it is so good we have bought a box of Ronald's brilliant book so you can buy A Short History of Progress directly from us as well as via the Amazon link above. |
|
|
|
|
| Writing seminar |
|
| Slow philosophy |
|
| Nakedize Limited |
Auckland | Wellington
11 Horotutu Road, One Tree Hill
Auckland 1061
New Zealand
info[at]nakedize.com
|
|
|
 |
Top